The 'Rose Household Textiles' Nigeria Scam

We all get scam offers by email and instant messenger. I was contacted twice by yahoo messenger last week by two different people both claiming to work for two different 'Rose Household Textiles Ltd' companies based in the UK. I messed around with the first one for a couple minutes before telling her that I would report her to the FBI. When I was contacted a second time, I figured that I would play along a little further, get a check and then pass on a fake Western Union payment confirmation so some scammer would have fun demanding money in the UK that was not there.

I am surprised that people are still being fooled by various Nigerian scams. This is one as well, but not as well known.

It all starts when I get an offer to work via Yahoo Messenger:

Fred: (not my ID) What kind of work?

Scammer: Okay,the job is all about being a payment collector from my customers in the state, which would never affect you present state of working,and we're willing to pay you ($300) on each payment you receive from them on behalf of our company.And this payment is for the supply of fabric textiles materials we supply to them.the payment will be post to you.

Fred: I don't understand. What do I need to do?

Scammer: All you have to do is help us recieve payments from our customers and clients in the states.These payments are in cashiers check or money orders and they would come to you in your name and information and the reason for this is that you will be the one to cash the check or money orders , so all you need do is cash the check or money orders take out your payment which is $300 USD and wire the rest of the money to us via western union money transfer

Fred: Where do I wire the money? What is the name of your company.

Scammer: you will wire the money to England
Scammer: ROSE HOUSEHOLD TEXTILES LIMITED COMPANY ENGLAND

Scammer: this is where you will send the money to via western union

Name: Geraldine Terry
Town: Hailsham,
City: East sussex,
Zipcode: Bn27 3jz,
Country: United kingdom

Wow! $300 just to cash a check and then wire the money. That sounds easy. That should be the first warning sign. The second warning sign is that they are ready to send checks for thousands of dollars to a complete stranger, with the checks in my name, not the name of the company. The third warning sign is that why wouldn't they require their 'customers' to wire the money directly. that would cost the sender about $40. Far less than the $300 they are getting ready to pay you. (In the email I was sent, I was also told to deduct the Western Union fee, whatever it was. Normally, it is the buyer who is responsible for wire fees.)

I told her that I was ready to make some easy money. She needed my name, (Fred), my address, (fake), my phone number, (I told her I would get a mobile and email her.) I figured that she would wait for me to give a phone number but I was surprised to hear that she was couriering a check for $3550.

In general, it is best not to respond to these people at all. You never know if they might be right around the corner, with weapons. But since I had, I now needed to act quickly. I contacted the overnight service and advised them that they had a package that was part of a check fraud scheme. The operator took down my information and said that their security department would contact me. I was surprised to get a call the next morning advising me that they had the package and that they notified the bank whose fraudulent check was inside. That is where the scam comes in. You deposit the check into your account. You withdraw the funds, minus your 'fee' and wire the funds as instructed. then 1-2 weeks later, you find out that the check bounced and your out the money. Sucks right.

The rest of the story will have to wait until sometime next year as the story still has some chapters to it. I removed the Yahoo name of the scammer because there are a number of them doing this. The name does not matter as THEY ARE ALL SCAMS. (If you really think it is real, cash the check and do not send the money to them. After all, the check is in your name, its yours.)

Here is another thing to keep in mind. Lets say that you wire a couple thousand dollars off 'for tax purposes' because you have won the 'Canadian Lottery' and the funds are seized by the FBI before they leave the country. Think you get the money back? Think again. Since the FBI did not seize it from you, it now belongs to them. After all, you gave it away. It was seized as wire fraud.

But at least the Nigerians didn't get it, right?

MAYBE WE ARE FIGHTING THE NIGERIA FRAUD THE WRONG WAY:

We all know that only the suckers answer the Nigeria fraud emails. Perhaps this is the wrong way to fight them. Maybe we should all reply back to the offers of simple money. A simple request for them to better explain what you need to do will in effect make them work harder to find the one real sucker that they are looking for.

Data Wales - Fake Job Scam

Update: 5 January 2007
Have you ever seen such a large Human Resources staff?

(Click to Enlarge)

The company I work for has over 100 employees and only one of them deals with Human Resources.

Excuse me if I not link to the company webpage.

And from their news section:

Employment Opportunity!!!

As part of the company measure to support people, Rose household textiles ltd is currently offering an EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY to people located in the United States of America and in Canada.

The company employs people through Emails or by Chat ranging from different chatting site locations like Yahoo Messenger, MSN (Now Windows Live), Google Talk, Aol, Jabber, ICQ etc....

You are advised to make sure you are talking to the right company personal, so as not to fall into the hands of Scam Artist who uses the company Identity for Scam.

Yes, be sure that you are talking to the right scammers!